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When I discovered competitive battling during Gen III, my playing style changed. I started EV training, IV breeding and nature-selecting. When Gen V started, I quit competitive battling, but I still EV train, IV breed and nature-select.

When I found about EVs and Natures it totally change the way I built team. Before that, I thought that Level was all that mattered.

yeah, i used to think that you just had to be ten levels higher than your opponent to beat him soundly. Then i realized how dim that line of thought was when i started playing pearl and diamond >.>

But i have been taking everything that everyone has been talking about into consideration and I am still learning. I had no idea this thread would be so popular but I'm more surprised how helpful it has been.

So much has changed since RBY. Back then, I had no idea about how to build a team, I used moves like Cut and Strength on my Charizard and didn't know Dragonite had weaknesses xD

In GSC, I learned more about types, I started to learn about stats and also tried to have different types on my team.

In RSE, I finally started being a Pokémon trainer. I started to include strategies on my teams, I learned more about Physical/Special moves, weather, and improved my skills and knowledge a lot. That was also when I started looking at serebii. Colosseum gave me a lot of knowledge about Doubles.

The 4th gen brought my entrance in competitive play and I learned how to breed and EV train properly. I could build a successful team for WiFi Doubles. Ingame, the game just became easier and easier as my prediction and team building skills improved.

With 5th gen, I tried to continue the same path that I had chosen in 4th gen. Same play style, new team, new options. But right now I feel like my playing style and my "standard" team concept are well established and I only need to try more options and practice to lead my Pokémon to victory ^^

only thing that changed the way i play is The highlighting of which stat is raised(Red) and lowered(Blue) by your pokemons nature.

before that was introduced i didn't really care that much about my pokemons nature. Now i save and reset my starter until i get a good nature. though i still don't care much about wild pokemon natures.

Also if it counts, Koffing and Grimer being in the wild so early in B2/W2 made me want to use it for the first time ever.

In the years I didn't change much of my way to play actually.
There are "traditions" that I created around the time of gen 3 and follow ever since. Like always have a balanced gender ratio in the team, always keep the starter at least 2 levels above the rest, always nickname my whole main team, etc.

Finding out about natures/EVs only had me thinking about training some pokemon competitively after the main game (because until then, I always have an adventure-raised team), procrastinating, then actually never do it. I literally only EV trained about 5 pokemon in my entire life.

If anything, I learned about shinies, and appreciate them a lot in the games

Spoiler:- Credits:

Sworn Metalhead for the signature banner and Sweep Freak for the avatar

please do not laugh
when i discovered this website i learned pretty much all i know like:
how to find any pokemon and information on them
event pokemon
planning for an entire game before you get it
actually thinking about stats and typings (i thought it was fitting that pokemon should have a move set of the same type before)
generally all things most of you guys treat as common knowledge (which is common knowledge for me now)
thank you serrebii.net,thank you

IDK really. I guess it was coming to this site. Up until then, I did use the internet for research, but only if there was a particular question I needed answering. But I learned a lot from this site. And when the news for Platinum came, I kept up with it, and I guess that excitement got me pre-planning teams and taking the game more seriously.

Originally Posted by LizardonX

Tabitha has really let himself go, just how many lava cookies did he eat in the last 11 years?

Using more than one pokemon and learning to read haha. When I first started playing pokemon Yellow I was like 2 years old and I didnt know how to read so I had no idea what was going on. I also spent many years using only my starter and using only attack moves.

Candice. It was thanks to Candice. Back in Pearl, I'd just run through the game with my starter, which in this case was Turtwig. When I got to Candice, her Abomasnow decimated me and my Torterra several times. I realized that I needed to use some other Pokémon. I started fresh (with a Chimchar) and started building around a team. I noted their types and weaknesses. I began constructing several in game teams and scenarios, and eventually made a team that could hit all 17 types with super-effective damage. I was on fire. But, I got interested in status moves, as well. I began surfing the internet for movesets to use for some of my favorite Pokémon. I got directed to Smogon, and noticed that they had several movesets for all the Pokémon. I went and grabbed a notebook and a pen, and wrote some down for an idea of what good movesets were like. I was astonished at the variety.

Then, I hit a wall in my planning. How was I supposed to execute these? I knew it would take me a long time to make them, so I tried to find a way around that. On Smogon, I read about a simulator called "Shoddy Battle". It certainly interested me, so I asked for permission and I joined. I made a few teams on the teambuilder. I joined my first tournament. They called it an "OU" tournament. What was OU? I joined anyway, and proceeded to get creamed by a Zapdos. I took everything back to the drawing board. I completely re-evaluated how I built my teams. I read. I researched. I constructed some sets. I experimented. Yet, I never liked just copying these sets or just playing with certain Pokémon. It was boring. So, I had some fun on the ladders with my Physical Nidoking (after BW).

In short, Candice was truly my inspiration to learn and become more skilled and tactical in Pokémon.

I was using the net to chat and stuff before Pokemon came along. Then when I got into the games I bought a magazine called Pojo that had a feature about fansites on the internet. I found Bulbasaur's Mysterious Garden (which wasn't a wiki back then) and then eventually Serebii's Pokedex. That helped me complete my first (and only) Pokedex and build a better team.

There was another site that got me into the manga. Neo-Pokemon-something. Had a Black, Gold, and Silver layout with a Totodile.

I was browsing a list of guides for Ruby and Sapphire online one day, when I noticed one about EVs. I had no knowledge of them prior to this, and a few minutes of reading said guide quickly had me on my way to EV training a Pokemon.

I got into IV breeding once Emerald came out, thanks to the IV checker.

Another aspect of the series that changed the way I played is the Join Avenue. It's really helped me save time on grinding in the wild for EVs when you can spend money on filling those EVs up in an instant purchase.

Originally Posted by Cresselia92

I think that Dragalge could suffer from "Goldeen Syndrome" and have problems outside of the water.

I think it was third generation that I learned about EVs and started messing around with them. I've always not cared to much if I win in lots of fights though, so I continue to use Pokemon I like with little care to their tiers. I do try to raise the Pokemon I catch to be the best they can be, though, even if its a NU Pokemon with a horrid nature. I think it was 4th gen, when I actually did an in game one with an EV raised team (I chose my Pokemon team, bred them to get new ones, and so by the 7th or 8th gym I had an EV raised team. It was then I discovered having an EV team can be kind of a bad idea outside of the meta. XD)

But 3rd gen got me thinking about it, 4th gen got me paying attention to it when I raised my Pokemon (mostly which natures I chose and stuff). It was mid-fourth gen where I made an OC trainer based on myself and I started building Pokemon based on what Pokemon she had (with some retcons, as I'm pretty uptight about catching Pokemon in the correct regions to fit the character). These days I go with the first Pokemon I caught to raise (picking only ones I like, although that's mostly post-game and I go with whatever works for the main storyline) regardless of how "good" it is. I only have egg moves when I've planned ahead and the Pokemon exists with my OC Trainer as a hatched Pokemon - but I'll plan for a nature since I'm breeding anyways.

I guess the simple answer is probably 4th gen, where I started changing how I trained Pokemon and what moves I had them learn based on their natures and stats. To this date, though, I don't fret too much over the meta and just use teams of Pokemon I like. I don't mind losing so long as I have fun - I'm the same way with chess and Yu-Gi-Oh! (TCG).

For me, my play-style changed after I regained intrest in pokemon (yes, I just lost intrest in it a couple times). But after that, I studied the game's mechanics out of boredom, and became, in my opinion, a lot better.

I changed around SoulSilver. I finally got myself a WiFi connection available at that time, and started learning EVs, IVs, and many other things, mostly for Competitive.
Before that I was those kind of "IMMA KILL YOU ALL WITH EARTHQUAKE RAWR!" type of player.